Drainage tile

ABSTRACT

THE DISCLOSURE OF THE PRESENT INVENTION INCLUDES A DESCRIPTION OF A TITLE WHICH IS SUITABLE FOR USE IN THE FORMATION OF GROUND WATER DRAINAGE CHANNELS AND THE LIKE AND A SHIPPER LOAD CONSISTING OF A PLURALITY OF TILES STACKED ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER TO FORM A STABLE SHIPPER LOAD. THE TILE IS GENERALLY ARCH-SHAPED AND IS FORMED WITH A PAIR OF SUPPORT SHOULDERS WHICH EXTEND HORIZONTALLY OUTWARDLY FROM THE OUTER SURFACE OF THE ARCH-SHAPED TILE TO SUPPORT A SIMILAR TILE STACKED ON TOP OF A FIRST SUCH TILE. THE DRAINAGE CHANNELS MAY BE MADE FROM A SINGLE LAYER OF TILES OR A PLURALITY OF LAYERS OF TILES ARRANGED ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER. THE SHIPPER PACKAGE IS FORMED BY ARRANGING THE TILES IN A PLURALITY OF LAYERS ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER.

March 16, 1971 O RTS 3,570,251

DRAINAGE TILE Filed Jan. 8, 1969 FIG.3

FIGZ

INVENTOR. DENNIS GOUGH ROBERTS fmm &

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,570,251 DRAINAGE TILE Dennis G.Roberts, 701 th Ave. 5., Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada FiledJan. 8, 1969, Ser. No. 789,827 Int. Cl. E02b 11/00 US. Cl. 61--10 4Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The disclosure of the presentinvention includes a description of a tile which is suitable for use inthe formation of ground water drainage channels and the like and ashipper load consisting of a plurality of tiles stacked one on top ofthe other to form a stable shipper load. The tile is generallyarch-shaped and is formed with a pair of support shoulders which extendhorizontally outwardly from the outer surface of the arch-shaped tile tosupport a similar tile stacked on top of a first such tile. The drainagechannels may be made from a single layer of tiles or a plurality oflayers of tiles arranged one on top of the other. The shipper package isformed by arranging the tiles in a plurality of layers one on top of theother.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to ground tiles. Inparticular the invention relates to a drainage tile which is suitablefor ground water drainage purposes and which can be arranged in a stableshipper load formation.

PRIOR ART The most common type of agricultural ground water drainagetile which is presently in use is a cylindrical tile made from concreteor burnt clay usually measuring 4 to 6 inches in diameter and 12 inchesin length. This type of tile is laid end-to-end on a base of sand orgravel in the bottom of a drainage ditch and the individual units arespaced apart by a distance of about inch and the top half of the tilejoint is covered with building paper or asphalt felt such that waterwill only enter the drainage channel by way of the open lower end of thejoint. Care must be taken in the laying of tiles to ensure that thespace between each tile is not too great or too small. Care must also betaken to ensure that the tiles are retained in axial alignment when thetrench is being filled as the round tiles tend to roll out of axialalignment.

A further problem encountered in the use of the conventional cylindricalshaped tile is in the shipping and storing of the tiles in an orderlystack. When the conventional cylindrical tiles are stacked one on top ofthe other they form an unstable and very bulky shipper load. The lack ofstability in a stack of tiles is a direct result of the cylindricalshape of the tile which permits it to roll freely. Similarly the bulk ofthe load is caused by the fact that the tile is cylindrical in shape andan area greater than twice the cross-sectional area bounded by theexternal diameter of a single tile is required to house two tiles.

The velocity of water passing through a ground water tile is generallyquite low with the result that silt is deposited on the bottom of aconventional tile. The silt deposit builds up over a period of time tothe point where the efiiciency of the drainage system is substantiallyre- 3,579,251 Patented Mar. 16, 1971 duced. Again the problem arises asa direct result of the fully enclosed structure of a conventionalcylindrical tile which makes no provision for the escape of siltdeposits.

SUMMARY The present invention overcomes the difficulties of the priorart by providing tiles which may be placed in end-to-end abuttingrelationship and stacked one on top of the other in order to be storedand transported in less space than cylindrical tiles and in a morestable configuration.

According to an embodiment of the present invention a tile comprises asubstantially arch-shaped body having an inner surface and an outersurface and support means formed on the outer surface for supporting asimilar tile in an orderly stable stacked relationship.

The present invention also provides a composite shipper load consistingof a plurality of tiles each comprising, a substantially arch-shapedbody having an inner curved surface and an outer curved surface, a pairof longitudinally extending support surfaces, a pair of transverselyextending end faces, shoulder suport means extending outwardly from saidouter surface of said tile to form a pair of longitudinally extendingsupport shoulders arranged in spaced parallel relationship to saidsupport surfaces, wherein, a number of said tiles are arranged in anend-to-end abutting relationship in a first layer and at least onefurther layer of tiles disposed above and carried by said first layer oftiles and having their support surface carried by the support shouldersof said first layer to form a stable shipper load.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention will be more clearlyunderstood after reference to the following detailed specification readin conjunction with the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of a tile according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a pictorial view showing the manner in which the tiles arelaid end-to-end and stacked one on top of the other to form a stableload for shipping and storing, and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a typical installation of a drainagetile according to the present invention.

With reference to FIG. 1 the reference numeral 10 refers generally to atile according to an embodiment of the present invention. The tile 10has a generally archshaped body 12 having an inner curved surface 14 andouter curved surface 16 both of which extend longitudinally of the tile.The inner curved surface 14 of the tile is substantially semicircular inshape and the outer curved surface 16 is generally parallel to the innersurface 14. The tile is formed with a pair of longitudinally extendingsupport surfaces 18 'which support the tile in a position with the outercurved surface 16 disposed upwardly. The end faces 20 extendsubstantially transversely of the tile such that the end face of onetile may closely abut the end face of an adjacent tile when laidend-to-end. A chamfer 22 is formed at each intersection of thetransverse end faces 20 and support surface 18 to provide a passagewhereby the 'water may enter the drainage channel formed within the tileas will be described hereinafter. Support means in the form of supportshoulders 24 extend outwardly from the outward curved surface 16 toprovide a pair of support shoulders which extend substantially parallelto the support surfaces 18. The support shoulders 24 are spaced apart asufiicient distance to provide a support for each of the supportsurfaces 18 of a second tile as shown in FIG. 2. The shoulders 24maintain the inner curved surface of the second tile in a spacedrelationship with respect to the outer curved surface of the first tileand co-operate with the support surface 18 to form a stable stack oftiles. The support shoulders 24 are preferably at a level below thelevel of the upper end of the curved surface 16 such that each shoulderhas an inner edge 24a which forms a register which prevents lateralmovement of one tile with respect to an adjacent overlying tile.

When a second layer of tiles is placed upon the first layer of tiles thetiles are preferably arranged in a longitudinally staggered relationshipsuch that the abutting ends of the tiles in one layer meet substantiallycentrally of the length of aide in the adjacent layer. This structurehas the advantage of the present invention and it ensures that eachadjacent layer of tiles co-operates with one another to add to thelateral rigidity of the stack of tiles. As shown in 'FIG. 2 the supportsurfaces 18 of the second layer of tiles rest on the shoulders 24 of thepresent layer of tiles and the inner edge of the support surface 18 isrestrained against lateral movement by the inner edge 24a of theshoulder 24. When a second layer of tiles is laid upon the first layerof tiles the support shoulders 24 and support surfaces 18 co-operate toprovide a space 26a between the outer curved surface 16 and inner curvedsurface 14 of adjacent tiles thereby ensuring that the stacking load isapplied substantially vertically to the underlying tiles. The verticalapplication of the stacking load helps to prevent breakage due tolongitudinal splitting which would occur in a semi-circular tilestructure which did not have the support shoulder of the presentinvention.

It will be apparent that when the tiles are in use to form a drainagepassage a plurality of tiles may be laid in a close fitting end-to-endabutting relationship without the need to provide a space between eachtile and a covering for each joint. Where the tiles are laid on a basesuch as clay, the provision of the chamfers 22 ensures that water mayenter the channel 26. Where the tiles are laid in a carefully preparedtrench such as that illustrated in FIG. '3, with gravel 30 underlyingthe open lower end of the tile, the chamfers 22 are not essential aswater may enter the passage 26 through the porous gravel substrate. Thefact that it is not necessary to carefully space each tile from itsadjacent tile considerably reduces the care which must be taken whenlaying the tiles. 'In FIG. 3 of the drawings it will be seen that in atypical installation wherein the reference numeral 3-3 refers generallyto a building foundation structure a gravel bed 32 is laid down as asupport for a layer of tiles 10 in the bottom of the excavation. Thetiles 10 are then placed on the gravel bed in an end-to-end abuttingrelationship such that a drainage channel 26 is formed. The gravel basepermits water to enter the channel 26 and also prevents the collectionof silt in the channel. The silt will tend to filter through the gravelto be deposited at a level which is lower than the bottom of thechannel.

The tiles according to the present invention may be manufactured by anyof the well known methods and may be made from clay, concrete or othersuitable materials such as plastics. The concrete tiles may be madeusing existing rotary equipment from which clay or plastic tiles may beextruded. While the tile illustrated in the preferred embodiment is of agenerally semicircular configuration, it will be apparent that thisconfiguration is not essential to the present invention and the tile maybe formed in any generally arch-shaped configuration as required.

A further advantage of the present invention is that it provides a tilewhich, in co-operation with a gravel Half height Material Compara-Interior interior cross-sective area, sq. area, sq. tion, sq. weight,

Type of unlt m. in. in. lbs.

4 inch diameter round unit 12. 55 6. 25 11. 2 11. 7 5.5 wide arch- 12.55 7. 75 7. 6 7. 9

NOTE: Weight sav1ng=3.8 lbs.

From the above table, it will be seen that the 5.5 inch wide arch-shapedtile is capable of providing an equal cross-sectional area to that ofthe 4 inch diameter round unit while providing an approximate 33 percentsaving in the weight and materials of the tile. This saving reduces thecost of the individual tile and further reduces the labour costs in thestacking, shipping and installation costs as a result of the ease ofhandling of the lighter units. The half height internal area listed inthe table is also of considerable importance as a tile of this type isgenerally selected with a view to being no more than half full when innormal use to provide a low velocity drainage flow. It follows that thearch-shaped channel will provide a greater half full height than thecorresponding round tile such that the volume of water discharged from ahalf full archshaped tile will be greater than that from a round tile.

The tiles of the present invention may also be used to form undergroundchannels for underground utility services, such as, electrical,telephone, gas or water lines. The longitudinal opening of the tile ofthis invention permits the tiles to be placed over a utility line in aground trench and serves to protect the line against damage fromsubsequent digging. The conventional circular tile is not suitable forthis type of installation as the utility line would have to be threadedthrough the central passageway.

Although only one layer of tiles is shown in the trench forming adrainage channel it will be understood that several layers of tiles maybe located in a trench in the formation illustrated in FIG. 2. With thisarrangement a plurality of channels such as 26a may be formed one abovethe other. The shoulders 24 of each layer of tiles will co-operate withthe support surfaces 18 to form a rigid stacked arrangement which may beused to house different utilities in each passageway or to provide anincreased total drainage capacity without the need to increase the sizeof the drainage tile.

It will also be apparent that the stack of tiles shown in FIG. 2 may belocated in a trench in an inverted position to provide a plurality ofconcave passageways if desired.

Various modifications of the present invention will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art without departing from the scope of the presentinvention.

What I claim is:

1. A drainage tile for use in the formation of underground channels andthe like comprising, a substantially semi-circular arch shaped bodyhaving an outer curved surface and an inner curved surface forming atile passage a pair of oppositely disposed transversely extending endfaces, a pair of longitudinally extending support surfaces extendingtransversely between said inner and outer surfaces, a pair of supportshoulders disposed one on either side of said semi-circular outersurface and extending longitudinally thereof, said shoulders projectinglaterally from said outer surface at a height above said support surfacesuflicient to ensure that the width between adjacent inner edges of saidshoulders is at least equal to the width of said tile passage, saidshoulders extending outwardly from said outer surface and having a widthsufiicient to provide support for the support surfaces of a second tilemounted thereon to form a stable stack of tiles.

2. A composite shipper load comprising a plurality of drainage tiles asclaimed in claim 1 wherein a number of said tiles are arranged in end toend relationship in a first layer and at least one further layer oftiles are disposed above said first layer of tiles and having theirsupport surfaces carried by said support shoulders of said first layerto form a stable shipper load.

3. A tile as claimed in claim 1, wherein a chamfer is formed at theintersection of the plane of each support surface and each end face toprovide a notch extending between the inner and outer surface of thebody when a plurality of tiles are laid end-to-end to form a drainagechannel.

4. A composite underground channel structure comprising a plurality oftiles each comprising: a substantially arch-shaped body having an innercurved surface and an outer curved surface, a pair of longitudinallyextending support surfaces, a pair of transversely extending end faces,shoulder support means extending outwardly from said outer surface ofsaid tile to form a pair of longitudinally extending support shouldersarranged in spaced parallel relationship to said support surfaces, anumber of said tiles being arranged in an end-to-end abuttingrelationship in a first layer and at least one further layer of tilesdisposed above and carried by said first layer of tiles with the supportsurfaces of one layer reacting against the shoulder support means of theadjacent layer to form a channel between each adjacent layer.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,440,823 4/1969 Olsen 61l1FOREIGN PATENTS 167,414 5/ 1934 Switzerland 52323 JACOB SHAPIRO, PrimaryExaminer

